More thoughts on the Egyptian Plover [Más opiniones sobre el Pluvial Egipcio]
Observer Richard Howard who is controlling the Egyptian Plover as being close to his residence in Murcia has sent us the following comments which seem interesting to take into account.
I thought I’d drop you a note on my thoughts of whether a vagrant or escape, which may (or may not) be of interest to you.
The Plover :
a) Shows no signs of any feather damage or facial damage that you might expect had it been caged, in fact it is in pristine condition.
b) Shows no sign of any wing clipping that may have been used to stop it escaping. According to my only reference (BWP), the adult only goes through a full moult in the summer. Hence it could not have just moulted, and then escaped.
c) No identification rings on the legs.
d) Although it will, when feeding, come quite close, you cannot approach it readily – if you do it flies to the opposite bank of the pool, and so is wary.
e) It is insectivorous and obviously very used to finding its own food – continually looking round for flies, reminiscent of Pratincoles feeding on the ground.
Weather Conditions:
I seem to remember about 3-4 weeks ago seeing an item on the news about a ‘brownout’ in a European city (I think it was Köln in Germany) caused by Saharan sand being caught up in a high southerly airstream. Could not the bird have been caught up in something similar to this as well?
As you can tell, I am in favour of the ‘True Vagrant’, although probably biased as I’ve seen it, and as my friends say ‘es un bicho pero muy, muy guapo’.
Stop press:
Resumen. Más opiniones sobre el Pluvial Egipcio. El observador Richard Howard que está controlando el ave por la zona de Murcia envía unos comentarios sobre porqué piensa que puede ser un divagante natural: sin marcas en el plumaje, vuela perfectamente, sin anillas, de comportamiento esquivo, carácter insectívoro y posible llegada con una tempestad de componente sahariano. El ave fue vista por última vez el 26.6.2008.
